While most people carry cards with embedded microchips and magneticstripes, most Americans carry cards with magneticstripes only.
BBC: Microchip technology added to two US credit cards
2.
The defendants then encoded the stolen data onto the magneticstripes of blank plastic cards (like store gift cards, for example).
FORBES: Crooks Secretly Filmed Customers' ATM Transactions To Steal $3M From Bank Accounts: NY AG
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The Fed has reissued what currency collectors call the "big-headed" bills, complete with magneticstripes and watermarks, the better to foil counterfeiters.